238 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Ml", nanford. — The Quakers down in Penusylvania liave a very neat way of 

 handling their apples. They have square boxes, holding a bushel, in which 

 the ap]iles arc placed from tlie tree ; these boxes are taken to the cellar and 

 packed away until sale is made, when they are either marketed in the boxes, or 

 repacked in barrels. 



Mr. E. 13nell, Kalamazoo. — AVhat I say is the result of personal experience. 

 It pays to sell nothing in the apple line but first class fruit. The greatest of 

 care should be taken in packing. Tiie correct name should be on the fruit, and 

 the owner's name attached. It is by persistently following this practice and 

 leading on the Eed Canada variety that I have come to get in many instances 

 double price for my fruit. I have repeatedly sold my Eed Canada apple for 

 §7.00 per barrel when good fruit was going at 83.50, all because my fruit was 

 known to be nothing but the very best of the very best kind. Here is a chance 

 for missionary work, for the mass of our apples are marketed under the false 

 impression that it pays to "tuck in" the jioor ones. The worst enemies to our 

 markets are those who buy apples that are jolted over rougli roads in a wagon 

 box and pack them in barrels for foreign markets to compete with honest 

 packages. Of course there are none of these men in this convention, but it is 

 for us to educate popular opinion in the direction tliat will tend to root 

 these men out. 



Prof. A. J. Cook, chairman of the standing committee on Entomology, as 

 his rei^ort for the year, gave a paper on 



THE GKAPE THYLLOXEKA. 



In a lecture uhicli I gave before the Michigan Pomological Society in 1875, 

 and published in their report for that year, after giving the history, natural his- 

 tory, etc., of this terrible destroyer, I drew some comforting conclusions in view 

 of the past success of grape growing in our country, though in the very face of 

 this incomparable pest; but added: Yet it behooves us all to look into this 

 matter of the Phylloxera, for very likely much of our ill success with certain 

 varieties has been owing to a cause of which we had no knowledge or even 

 suspicion. 



There is reason to believe, in view of more recent experience, that the above 

 suggestion merited more attention than it received. We seldom buy ammuni- 

 tion with which to fight possible enemies, and I doubt not that we are happier, 

 in that few of us believe in scenting evil that is afar off. Yet I am constrained, 

 in view of what I deen not only prospective but present dangers, to again sound 

 a note of warning. 



It is well known that the subject of black-rot in grapes — for years the cause 

 of some anxiety — has of late become a matter of the most serious consideration 

 in some parts of this and contiguous States. Especially since 18G4 has this 

 evil been rapidly increasing, not only reaching out to blight new vineyards, but 

 also clutching in its withering grasp many new varieties. Indeed, many fruit- 

 growers in Ohio have given uj) viticulture because of this serious pest. Ko\r it 

 is a question of no small moment, whether there is any relation between this 

 fatal rot and the Phylloxera, known in some places at least to be the arch 

 destroyer of the yine. As I shall siiow in the sequel, there is some reason to 

 believe that these hold the relation of cause and eifect, — that the Phylloxera 

 vastatrix in short, by its withering presence, so destroys the vigor of the vines 



